Indian Sports Wrap, February 27: Vaidehee reaches W35 semifinals in Burnie; Rutuja knocked out in doubles

TENNIS

Vaidehee reaches W35 semifinals in Burnie; Rutuja knocked out in doubles

Rutuja Bhosale and her Japanese partner Makoto Ninomiya lost in the quarterfinals of the Merida Open, a WTA 500 event in Mexico, on Thursday.

Rutuja, India No. 1 in doubles, and Makoto went down 6-2, 6-3 to the second-seeded Spanish-Chinese duo of Cristina Bucsa and Jiang Xinyu in an hour and 10 minutes.

At the W35 event in Burnie, Australia, Vaidehee Chaudhari survived a scare to defeat China’s Chengyiyi Yuan 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Fourth-seeded Indian Vaidehee will face seventh-seeded Japanese Mio Mushika in Saturday’s semifinals.

At the W15 event in Gurugram, Zeel Desai kept the Indian challenge alive as the third seed came from behind to defeat fifth-seeded Japanese Michika Ozeki 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Desai will take on sixth-seeded Russian Ekaterina Yashina for a place in the final.

-Team Sportstar

GOLF

Kochhar lies 10th at NZ Open golf

Indian golfer Karandeep Kochhar shot a second straight 67 to be inside the Top-10 at the New Zealand Open presented by Millbrook Resort here on Friday.

The other Indian in the fray, Shiv Kapur (77-69) missed the cut.

Kochhar carded four birdies and an eagle against two bogeys in his second round of 67. In his first round, he had five birdies against one bogey.

– PTI

Rough start for Indian women golfers in Australia

It was a rough opening day for the Indians as Hitaashee Bakshi emerged the best among them at tied-48th with a card of 73 in the Ford Women’s NSW Open on the Ladies European Tour.

Pranavi Urs carded 3-over 74 while Diksha Dagar (77) was T-103rd and Avani Prashanth (80) was T-126th as the first day’s play was affected by a flooded course.

The first round was suspended on Thursday and then completed later on Friday.

More than half the field was still to complete 36 holes and none of the Indians had started the second round.

Even as the conditions cleared up, the course remained soft.

– PTI

Published on Feb 27, 2026